Everything I Never Told You ( Conan Gray )

XXXVI. People Together

Author's Note: So, hi again! 

"Put one on my nose," Conan grabbed his best friend's hand and made her stick the brown bear over the crook of his nose. Both of them were sitting cross legged over Conan's bed and putting stickers on his face for some reason. 

"One on your dick?" she asked wryly and he giggled, hitting her hands away. "I made another charm for your bracelet."

"You did?" he asked, a little surprised by the information. She must have observed how scanty three charms made the bracelet on his wrist look. "Spoons?"

"Melted spoons are the only way," she said proudly. 

"Could you teach me how to do it?" he asked, holding her hands and throwing her a flirty smile. 

"Now you want to learn," she scoffed with a lofty look. "Wait-Are you gonna make something for your boyfriend?"

"I don't have a boyfriend!" he yelled, squeezing her hands and turning red. 

"You won't if you keep up yelling," she said, shaking her hands to loosen his grip. She finally pried them out and they fell in her lap awkwardly. "I mean if you're gonna ask him out, at least leave some hints."

"Like?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging casually, "Compliment him all the time and be extra nice and-"

"That sounds so annoying," he interjected, putting his hand over her lips. He immediately pulled it back when she furrowed her eyebrows as if to bite him. "Like, why be clingy when you can-"

"That's what the cowards say, Cone," she said dramatically shrugging and rolling her eyes. Was it possible to do them both?

"Why aren't you dating Gus yet?"

Ashley gave him the weirdest smile. The left side of her face went up in a smile and the right side went down in a considerable frown. It was like seeing some piece of metaphorical art, suggesting both desire and disappointment. 

"Because he is way better than me and I have no chance with him," she explained. 

"I think you do," he said. "Every time Gus is texting you he is making big eyes at his phone and if I ask him what he is doing, he blushes red and hides his face."

The facts rattled Ashley because she looked like she was analyzing all the things he had said. She shrugged again, acting unfazed. 

"Well then shouldn't he just come right out and say it?" she said sternly. He realized she had stopped putting stickers on his face. He grabbed the sheet and did it for himself. 

"Why don't you make the first move?"

"I doesn't matter who makes the first move," she said, as he put a crocodile one on his face, "If it's meant to be, it will happen anyways."

"The universe can only bring people together," he said philosophically. "It cannot make them like each other or give them courage to admit their feelings. So if you're really gonna think that you will let something really beautiful slip away." She opened her mouth to counter him but then shut it as he spoke again. 

"Take it from someone who has been single his whole life," he said sadly, "I have so many people slip away because I never had the courage to keep them close. Maybe if I had the courage, I would have someone right now but I don't. And that does suck and at the end of the day, I always think about what could have been."

"So, does this mean you will confess to Heath?" she asked, an oblivious look over her face. He jerked away, laughing nervously. 

"I will," he laughed, "But not anytime soon."

"I don't think you have to date just now," she said and put a few stickers on his cheeks from a stray sheet. "You could wait around for a while but at least make it clear that you like him."

"I don't think that's a good idea," he admitted, leaning forward to give her better reach. "I will but he needs time and so do I."

"My point exactly," she said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "I just dumped that ass faced boring jerk, Keiran. I can't date Gus right now."

"I don't think Gus will mind," he said. He always had that soft but emboldened look when she was around. 

"Okay," she nodded, considering, "If I ask out Gus, you will have to admit to Heath."

"Huh?" he made an impatient noise. "No, that's not it."

"Come on," she said. "It's just admitting, not as difficult as what I am supposed to do."

Conan could see how fucked this deal might get. Worse case scenario: Heath would call him only a friend. Best case Scenario: Heath wouldn't freak out and reciprocate his feelings. 

"This honestly so fucked," he laughed bitterly. 

Conan's mom handed him a grocery list four days into town. Ashley and the others had classes so he had to drive to HEB, the best grocery store in the world, alone. HEB was just a few streets away from the famous lake of their town. The lake was in a freaking ditch and to cross it, one had to trudge or slide down the grass after crossing the engineer wood fence. Driving by it, he noticed a few boys of about his age fucking around. 

There were four of them, three of them really huge and packed with muscle. The three seemed to be teasing the fourth one who was leaner, lankier and shorter than them. He stopped his car and squinted to get a better view. 

Fucking god, he thought. The three boys were Hector, Samuel and Rob. They had studied in the same batch as him in high school. 

But what startled him more(the reason he stopped his car) was the fact that Heath was the fourth boy.